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I'll tell you up front that I'm reviewing an article that uses one of the oldest tricks in the financial-journalism book: trying to hook readers by connecting a famous investor to the stocks being discussed.

Heck, I'm not much better: My headline roped you in with a mention of energy-stock legend T. Boone Pickens.

But I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think there was some value in the story and some justification in tying the piece to a brand-name investor.

Street Authority

"Pickens likes to buy low and sell high. And of the numerous stock purchases that his BP Capital has made in recent months, two stand out as especially-deep value plays," Sterman writes.

The piece doesn't go into great detail about the two energy stocks. But despite the fact that both stocks have already discounted that a legendary investor bought into them, Sterman makes a case that both could have upside.

Seeking Alpha

The writer argues Suncor is trading at a significant discount on both the absolute and relative terms as compared to its peers. According to the analysis, a fair price for Suncor Energy is in the range of $42-$44/share, which is far ahead of the $30 share price.

"Suncor is especially a good buy currently due to the depressed share price due to the impairment charges of Q4 2012," the article states.

By the way, Barron's Associate Editor Andrew Bary also spoke favorable of Suncor in a positive piece on a several Canadian energy stocks that appear in Barron's last weekend. (See "Black Gold in the Great White North," February 23.)

Any investor with an interest in exchange-traded funds should read a Zacks piece that recommends ETFs that are a play on broader indexes, but manage to achieve returns with lower volatility than traditional funds.

"According to traditional finance theories—investors demand a higher rate of return for taking greater risks but some of recent empirical studies show that the lower risk stocks have rewarded the investors with higher return than the broader markets over longer-term," argues Neena Mishra.

The piece states that despite the alarm bells, Wall Street will "probably yawn at the sequester."

It quotes Hans Olsen, head of investment strategy for the Americas at Barclays, who states that, given that corporate earnings have been relatively resilient during the decline in government spending over the past few years, it's unlikely the cuts will be a big drag on markets.

"Between September 2010 and December 2012, real government spending that includes government purchases from businesses and paying government employees dropped by about 20%. However, earnings didn't decline. Across companies listed on the Standard & Poor's 500, the fourth-quarter moving average earnings per share rose by about 71% during the same period, Olsen says."